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Exactly, even with the so-called "thrashing" of Real Madrid I didn't feel we played that great (we were lucky not to concede in the first half) and we have been a second-half team for a long time. I felt people gave Valverde too much credit so far this season and it had more to do with how bad Real Madrid has been and less to do with how brilliant his tactics and coaching have been.

Agree.

Its also part of the 4-4-2 people seem to like so much but i dont.
That "2" is Suarez and Messi, and Messi almost never play in attack, so our attack is pretty much Suarez and nothing else.
If it was hard with 3 attackers before, its almost impossible for Suarez alone to go up against solid defences.
Coutinho rather work outside the box and should really play in the left AM role.
Dembele looks lost most of the time.
Most of the time our victories comes dodwn to Messi/Suarez individual brilliance.

The team is far from beeing done with reconstruction, most of the midfielders should still be sold, a proper CM brought in, and a wing attacker that breaks into the goalarea wouldnt be bad either.

Its also part of the 4-4-2 people seem to like so much but i dont.
That "2" is Suarez and Messi, and Messi almost never play in attack, so our attack is pretty much Suarez and nothing else.
If it was hard with 3 attackers before, its almost impossible for Suarez alone to go up against solid defences.
Coutinho rather work outside the box and should really play in the left AM role.
Dembele looks lost most of the time.
Most of the time our victories comes dodwn to Messi/Suarez individual brilliance.

The team is far from beeing done with reconstruction, most of the midfielders should still be sold, a proper CM brought in, and a wing attacker that breaks into the goalarea wouldnt be bad either.

True. I think if Suarez and Coutinho were the ones who poke at defenders and hassle them, I think the bus would be broken more easily. But he likes to stay at the edge of the box, dribble, cut in and take long shots. And Messi is doing the same. And all the attempts were easily saved. Coutinho is more like an AM so he shud be getting into the box more and making runs, so Messi or Busquets can easily ping the ball to him.

Off the ball movement is terrible and only Suarez has been great in this area. Even when Dembele came on, not much movement from him, playing as a RM he is just running at a parked bus.

True. I think if Suarez and Coutinho were the ones who poke at defenders and hassle them, I think the bus would be broken more easily. But he likes to stay at the edge of the box, dribble, cut in and take long shots. And Messi is doing the same. And all the attempts were easily saved. Coutinho is more like an AM so he shud be getting into the box more and making runs, so Messi or Busquets can easily ping the ball to him.

Off the ball movement is terrible and only Suarez has been great in this area. Even when Dembele came on, not much movement from him, playing as a RM he is just running at a parked bus.

This is my answer to a parked bus. If you want a combative striker or someone to run in behind you start Suarez... If you want more space for your wings or for them to run in behind start Messi... Coutinho will always cut in but with Dembélé you have someone that can both cut in and go to the byline.

Workhorses don't possess the creativity to unlock buses and playing with 2 pivots in a 4-2-3-1 is just going to lead to counters when the wide men lose the ball (which is always going to happen).

Only thing I'll say about this line-up is that in an ideal world Semedo would start at RB and Paulinho in place of Rakitic with liberties to run into the box.